How do you create a book cover that really sells the story to its audience? How do you package a book with a badass woman protagonist without relying on bare midriffs and spiky heels? Muddy Colors columnist Lauren Panepinto explains how she approaches cover art in her role as Orbit Books' Creative Director.»3/20/15 11:00am 3/20/15 11:00am

A classic debate! Good or Evil? Chocolate or Strawberry? Star Trek or Star Wars (excluding the Death Star)? But unlike those timeless questions this one really does seem to have a compelling answer. And its not what the majority seem to think. »12/29/14 4:15pm 12/29/14 4:15pm

Andrew E. Larsen is an historian who specializes in Medieval England and blogs about pop culture and history at An Historian Goes to the Movies. In "Disney's Robin Hood: A Bit More Medieval Than You Might Think," Larsen explores the film's true inspiration, which wasn't Robin Hood but a different medieval tale.»9/20/14 12:00pm 9/20/14 12:00pm

Twenty years ago, if you were a new author interested in getting your book published, you had to shop it around with publishers and hope that someone, eventually, might not reject you. But nowadays you can choose to self-publish anything you'd like. Here's how. »7/25/14 6:32pm 7/25/14 6:32pm

Most of us think of ourselves as savvy, informed individuals who approach the world with discerning eyes. But the truth is that we're often remarkably gullible when it comes to pseudoscience and quackery. That's the bad news. The good news is that it is surprisingly easy to tell quackery apart from real science. »6/06/14 12:27am 6/06/14 12:27am

One of the movies that showed great promise that it never quite managed to deliver on was Paul W.S. Anderson's Event Horizon. The space horror starred Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill and Kathleen Quinlan as members of a rescue vessel, the Lewis and Clark, sent to check on a distress signal sent from the Event Horizon, a… »8/18/13 8:00am 8/18/13 8:00am

Cities are havens for weirdness. From communities built around garbage to dogs that ride the subway, urban environments have fostered all manner of weird patterns. Here are the 10 freakiest urban ecosystems on the planet. »6/30/13 2:00pm 6/30/13 2:00pm

NASA knew full well that the Apollo lunar landing missions were risky, and it took steps to minimize the chances of losing astronauts in space. Redundancies were built into the spacecraft, and astronauts and technicians alike spent hours simulating missions. Mission planners also used simulations to anticipate as… »3/05/13 9:40am 3/05/13 9:40am

On Lost Girl, a road trip gives us a glimpse of the old Kenzi while Bo sets out to grant forgiveness, and realizes she's really the one who needs forgiving. If that seems a little too Lifetimey, there's a Polish demon and cleavage galore. »3/05/13 8:30am 3/05/13 8:30am

Imagine batteries stretchy enough to flex inside clothing or under the skin. Unusually elastic batteries could one day help power flexible electronics worn on or implanted inside the body, researchers say. »2/28/13 8:20am 2/28/13 8:20am

A recently discovered comet will make an uncomfortably close planetary flyby next year — but this time it's not Earth that's in the cosmic crosshairs. According to preliminary orbital prediction models, comet C/2013 A1 will buzz Mars on October 19, 2014. Early calculations suggest that the chance of impact is low —… »2/26/13 6:20am 2/26/13 6:20am

In the Battlestar: Galactica universe, nebulas are a nifty spot to hide from the Cylons that are plotting to kill humanity. There's just one problem with the hypothesis, though: These diffuse areas of gas in our universe are actually very faint, even if you get close up. Probably too faint for a hiding spot. »2/25/13 8:20am 2/25/13 8:20am

When it comes to our food choices, many of us do the best we can to ensure that what we're putting on our plates are the healthiest and most nutritious foods possible. But given so many choices, it's not easy to know exactly what we should be eating — so we put our trust in conventional wisdom, common sense, and what… »2/14/13 2:00pm 2/14/13 2:00pm

Is the world only a Pope away from the End? Yes, if you believe a chilling 12th-century prophecy. Attributed to St. Malachy, an Irish archbishop canonized in 1190, the Prophecy of the Popes would date to 1139. The document predicted that there would be only 112 more popes before the Last Judgment — and Benedict XVI… »2/14/13 7:20am 2/14/13 7:20am

Over the last century and a half, science fiction has evolved just as science has evolved. But does this mean there is actually a causal link between futurology and real scientific research? Could science fiction actually determine what technologies humanity ultimately invents? And if so, can this new generation of… »2/12/13 2:40pm 2/12/13 2:40pm

We tend to think science fiction magazines started when Hugo Gernsback introduced the concept of "scientificion." But for the quarter-century leading up to the Russian Revolution, the Russians were massive consumers of "scientific fantasy," and they had a popular magazine called Nature and People, full of…»2/06/13 3:30pm 2/06/13 3:30pm

In most pop-zombie lore, zombies have been infected with a contagion that turns them into mindless, soulless monsters on the hunt for human flesh. Even if a reanimated corpse used to be your mother/father/brother/girlfriend/BFF, now it's a zombie, and it has to die. End of story. But the latest film in the zombie… »2/06/13 12:20pm 2/06/13 12:20pm